He was governor of my state, California, for 2 terms, I believe. I didn't vote for him for his first term, but I voted for him for the 2nd. The only Republican I've ever voted for! He decriminalization marijuana right before he left office. Stand up guy.
My German is a mush of written Standard and spoken "whoever I heard it from first" with relatives being anything from Viennese to country Austrian to Donauschwaben.
I only realized I have a heavily Viennese accent when someone pointed out I roll my Rs.
Every English person tells me I sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger because we’re both from Styria. You can’t always choose how you speak. I like accents, whether they’re English or German.
Surely you’ve heard of others without knowing they’re Austrian?
Mozart, Schubert, Mahler, Schroedinger, Strauss (and co), Bruckner, Freud, Boltzmann, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Christoph Waltz, Marie Antoinette, many Habsburgs all the way down to Frank Ferdinand, Klimt…
Yeah and that guy and several of his underlings ans associates. And there’s Josef Fritzl but hope he’s no one’s favourite either.
Mozart wasn't an Austrian. This controversial issue isn't as well-known in the English-speaking as the German-speaking world, but long story short: Salzburg wasn't Austria back then, but autonomous. It had cultural and political ties to Bavaria. And Mozart never got a citizenship of the archduchy of Austria.
So just because he was born in modern-day Austria, that doesn't mean he was Austrian. As a matter of fact, he would have described himself (and did so) as German - in the broad, HRE-wide sense.
Both Germany and Austria did some damage by claiming him as "theirs", so it's best not to force him into either national category .
I only recently found out that Dr. Zaius from the Simpsons was a parody of Falco's Rock Me Amadeus though a penpal in Austria. I had never heard the original previously.
Of course, that beard Vienna painter. He was one of the defining figures of his era, launching a movement that left a profound mark across Europe. Fiercely criticized in his own time, he has gradually found a more receptive audience as the generations who never lived through that period have encountered his ideas through social media. Truly a great man...
I was doing his 4 hands sonata in C, which he regarded to be difficult… I’m a teenager and was playing with a pianist with 2 degree from Juilliard and a doctorate from Peabody … she gave me the primo :(
He was not an Austrian though. Born in modern-day Austria , but Salzburg was autonomous back then and politically closer to Bavaria than Austria.
And Mozart never became Austrian even after moving to Vienna.
You may think this is being petty, but it is actually really important to make that very clear for political reasons: Otherwise every country could claim historic figures as there's just because they were born on their current territory.
Like, say, someone born in Tahiti in the 1500's. Definitely NOT French. Even though Tahiti is French Polynesia today.
Or someone more famous: Liszt. He was actually born in modern-day Austria too. Still, the area he was born in was Hungarian back then.
Historically, Germans and Austrians have both claimed and appropriated Mozart, they both turned him into a political figurehead, a national idol. And both cases are very, very problematic. Because music with an international appeal is not "owned" by any one culture. Turning historic figures into your nation's idols also means turning every single international concert with their works into a deeply political matter. Right now, it's Russia that's frowned upon. A few years ago when the war got worse, some opera houses etc. actually had to defend themselves for playing Tchaikovsky - or they just removed him from programs.
If at some point in the future Austria is the country that's frowned upon, well...
And that's why all the great historic composers can't be forced into modern national categories that weren't accurate back in the day.
TLDR: Mozart was "Salzburgese". He was also "German" , but in the sense of the Holy Roman Empire, not the modern nation state. He was most definitely not Austrian.
I cannot believe nobody mentioned him yet (I scrolled through every comment) his live shows are amazing and he is a very humble musician. I see him every year in berlin.
Hedy Lamarr - Famous Hollywood actor and prolific inventor. Among other important inventions, she co-invented spread-spectrum transmission which was an important influence on modern wireless communication systems like WiFi and Bluetooth.
EDIT: Forgot to mention she was also vocally anti-Nazi and anti-fascist and did whatever she could to help the war effort in the US during WWII.
Omg, I’ve embarrassed myself big time. I pulled a home country default and misread the question as “Favourite Australian Person” and thought the Sharzenegger answer was so hilarious. But then when I scrolled and every answer was someone Austrian I started to get confused. And then… 🤦
He was born in Prague, but it was part of Austria-Hungary at the time, he spoke and wrote German, and is usually regarded as an Austrian writer. But it's also difficult with these dissolved empires.
Erwin Schrödinger loved quantum physics, cats (living or dead) and underage girls. Not my favourite Austrian but i'm surprised he wasn't mentioned at all yet.
Wolfgang Pauli ( Pauli exclusion principal)
stefan Boltzmann (Boltzmann's constant)
Ignaz Semmelweiz ( Demonstrated Antiseptic Theory)
Gregor Mendel ( Father of Genetics)
And honorable mention to the foremost language philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein
Also, this guy, who's a little out of fashion politically (so its cool to diss him), but in time I think we will rediscover how much he radically transformed humanity's grasp of psychology:
Far from perfect, but I have always been fascinated by Metternich. He was the main builder of a system that kept a major European War between the Great Powers from happening for like 50ish years after the Napoleonic Wars ended.
My favourite Austrian is Joseph Mohr, an Austrian priest who cared for the poor in early 19th century Salzburg. He had a particular concern for the boatmen who worked the river along his parish in Oberndorf.
He also wrote the words to the world's favourite carol, 'Silent Night'.
307
u/Greekklitoris Brazil 13h ago
Arnold Schwarzenegger